Gastropods in the Garden!

(That's me utilizing my Biology degree! ;0) ) Basically we're infested with slugs. I've always thought they were kind of cute until I noticed that several of my summer squash had holes in the ends. Upon further inspection I found one that still had a slug inside (otherwise I would have no idea who the culprit was). I found several "green ideas" on the internet, surprisingly noone in my house volunteered to take a flashlight into the garden at night and pick up slugs! Beer traps (they are attracted to the yeast and fall in and drown), sand around the plants (the texture is too abrasive on their slimy bellies), copper wire (produces a slight electric shock). My garden is the perfect habitat for slugs, it is shady (the zucchini and summer squash have grown to massive proportions and have actually overtaken the onions and okra.) and it is moist thanks to my pinestraw mulch , (which I think is also harboring mosquitoes)- but on the bright side I hardly have any weeds.

The girls and I found a HUGE slug in the garden, he was probably about as big around as my thumb. After a quick biology lesson, he was large enough you could see his mouth and file-like radula, we declared war! We salted him and set him on the deck for observation. Generally that is not something that I would do- it seems kind of cruel, but I've always wondered what it would look like, and like I said: This is war...

We bought some slug killer at Lowes yesterday and I put it in the garden last night. This morning there were white gooey cobwebby looking things althroughout the garden. It looks just like the slug we salted last night, so I'm quite confident that it is working, hopefully it will eradicate the problem completly.

Unfortunatly I can't water for 48 hours- pretty poor timing, it is a scorcher today- 101 and its only 1 oclock. I totally soaked it yesterday evening so hopefully everything will be o.k. I'm so tired of this hot weather! Elton just took Chris's phone into Alltel, its brand new and the screen is completly fried. Thankfully they didn't hassle him about it, just let him exchange it for another one. Anyway- he came home with a half gallon of Cold Stone's Peanut Butter Cup Perfection! He knows the way to my heart!